OR/MS Today articles from April 2007

OR/MS Today archives from April 2007

Flights of fancy O.R.(INSIDE STORY)(operational research)
April 1, 2007... For decades, Omya Hustadmarmor, a Norwegian slurry company with customers throughout the world, had an easy if expensive answer to problems associated with its complicated delivery system involving tanker ships plying the waters of the North...

Venture outside O.R. comfort zone.(PRESIDENT'S DESK)(business enterprizes should look for domains beyond operational research)
April 1, 2007... In the most recent issue of OR/MS Today, Saul Gass and Arjang Assad reported on a special track that was held at the 2006 Pittsburgh meeting ("GUPOR," OR/MS Today, February 2007). The track, "Great Unsolved Problems in O.R," included 12 talks...

Corporate Web site or virtual community?(INFORMS ONLINE)
April 1, 2007... One of the things I am struggling with as editor in chief is understanding the role of INFORMS Online. Of course, if you ask me or anyone else what this role is or should be, we all want the same things from IoL--information for members (and...

Diabetes focuses attention on numbers.(WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID?)(significance of medical science applications in management science )
April 1, 2007... I'm teaching an undergraduate "Segment 3" class this semester (on other campuses, such courses are known as "distribution requirements" or "general education requirements" and there are probably other synonyms) called Value Creation in the...

O.R.--a midlife crisis?(Q.E.D.)(operational research as a midlife crisis)(Viewpoint essay)
April 1, 2007... I find myself increasingly gravitating towards purchasing and even wearing "sporty" things. I now have a sports watch although it is unlikely that I will be racing cars or doing any deep-sea diving. I have hiking boots although I only walk on...

Web video: transformational option for O.R.(FORUM)
April 1, 2007... In the 1967 movie "The Graduate," we have this famous dialogue [1]: Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Benjamin: Yes, I am. Mr. McGuire:...

O.R. and Physics: it's all relative.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... To the Editor: Today (March 14) is the birthday anniversary of Albert Einstein, which somehow seems propitious for commenting on Man-Mohan Sodhi's column in the February 2007 issue of OR/MS Today entitled "O. R. and Physics." As a...

Optimizing Weyerhaeuser's renewable resources.(ROUNDTABLE PROFILES)
April 1, 2007... Weyerhaeuser Company is an enterprise that is actively engaged in all stages of the forest products business, from growing trees to building homes. The company was founded in 1900 and has grown to be a Fortune 100 company and a premier...

The great divide: Great Unsolved Problems in O.R.(GUPOR)
April 1, 2007... MY MAIN CONCERN is the increasingly obvious worldwide divide of the OR/MS community into two subsets: subset M: "O.R. mathematicians," and subset ST: "Social technologists," a term used by Hylton Boothroyd in "Articulate Intervention" [1]....

Fighting flight delays: operations research packs a punch while delivering a punctual operation for British Airways.(INTERNATIONAL O.R.)
April 1, 2007... British Airways (BA) is a major international airline, operating 750 flights per day to 130 destinations worldwide, using a fleet of 230 aircraft. This large, complex network, coupled with a very complex, constrained operating environment,...

Optimal logistics at Omya Hustadmarmor: inventory routing helps Norwegian slurry company cut costs, enter new markets and protect the environment.(INTERNATIONAL O.R.)
April 1, 2007... Logistics planning has always been an important area for operations research. For the distribution function, the traditional approach has been to make inventory replenishment decisions and vehicle routing decisions separately. Inventory routing...

Ports o' call for O.R. problems: from stacking containers in seaports to staff planning at airports, optimization opportunities abound.(INTERNATIONAL O.R.)
April 1, 2007... If one looks in the Oxford Dictionary for "ports," one will find the definition: "a town or city with a harbor"; and under "harbor," one will find: "a place on the coast where ships may moor in shelter." Today, however, the word "port"...

Educating Japanese government officials: the expansion of O.R. in Japan's public sector depends on exposing more high-level civil servants to O.R. in the classroom.(INTERNATIONAL O.R.)
April 1, 2007... The National Personnel Authority (NPA) is in charge of the recruitment of government officials in Japan. There are three types of recruitment examinations: types I and II are for university and college graduates, while type III is for high...

MIT World: see it now: free video and audio streaming Web site provides on demand access to public lectures from a "who's who of great thinkers.".(INTERNATIONAL O.R.)
April 1, 2007... "Somehow Arnold Barnett manages to massage the subject of airline accidents into a breezy and sometimes comforting talk on statistical probabilities. In decades of research, he has taken firm hold of the metrics of measuring mortality in...

Comparing notes in Uruguay: the first ALIO/INFORMS Workshop on O.R. Education explores differences, similarities and novel approaches to teaching.(INTERNATIONAL O.R.)
April 1, 2007... Over the past year, the Latin American Ibero Association on Operations Research (ALIO: www.dc.uba.ar/alio/index-en.htm) and INFORMS have been working together to organize a teaching workshop modeled after the annual Teaching Effectiveness...

O.R. catches a wave in Puerto Rico: thanks to the IE department at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, operations research soars (and sometimes surfs) in the Caribbean.(INTERNATIONAL O.R.)
April 1, 2007... Unless you love world-class surfing, you may never have heard of the city of Mayaguez. Located in the westernmost part of the island of Puerto Rico, this quiet coastal college town is home to one of the best-kept secrets of the Caribbean--the...

An invitation to beautiful Puerto Rico.(INFORMS NEWS)(Public notice)
April 1, 2007... Organizers of the INFORMS International Puerto Rico 2007 Meeting invite you to join us July 8-11 at the Westin Rio Mar Beach Resort & Spa. The conference location--the most luxurious hotel on the island--offers 500 acres of tropical paradise on...

Combined Colloquia.(2007 INFORMS Combined Colloquia)
April 1, 2007... The 2007 INFORMS Combined Colloquia will be held on Nov. 2-3, the Friday and Saturday before the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle. The Combined Colloquia will feature the: * Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium * Future Academician...

Call for nominations.(INFORMS NEWS)
April 1, 2007... INFORMS PRIZE INFORMS annually awards the INFORMS Prize for effective integration of operations research/management science (OR/MS) into organizational decision-making. The award is given to an organization that has repeatedly applied the...

Highlights from the ICS 2007 conference.(INFORMS NEWS)(2007 Informs Computing Society conference)
April 1, 2007... The 10th conference of the INFORMS Computing Society convened Jan. 3-5 in Coral Gables, Fla. The meeting featured the presentation of 65 papers submitted by 130 authors with special clusters in Networks and Graphs, Vehicle Routing and the TSP,...

Nominations sought for editor of Topics in Operations Research.(INFORMS NEWS)(Public notice)
April 1, 2007... The term of Keith Womer as editor in chief of the Topics in Operations Research book series expires on Dec. 31. Based on recommendations from the INFORMS Publications Committee, the president of INFORMS has appointed a committee to conduct a...

Call for papers: CIST.(INFORMS NEWS)(Conference on Information Systems and Technology)(Conference news)
April 1, 2007... The INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST 2007) will be held Nov. 3-4 in Seattle. The conference theme is "Interdisciplinary Information Systems Research." Knowledge focused digitally enabled enterprises have...

NIJ grants for O.R.(INFORMS NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Following up on the symposium reported in the December issue of OR/MS Today, the National Institute of Justice is about to issue a solicitation for grant proposals, marking NIJ's re-entry into serious support for O.R. in law enforcement and...

INFORMS Meetings.(INFORMS NEWS)(Calendar)
April 1, 2007... INFORMS National & International Meetings 2007 April 29-May 1 INFORMS Practice Conference: Applying Science to the Art of Business Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Vancouver, BC, Canada Chair: Jack Levis, UPS ...

The People's American Bank.(ORACLE)
April 1, 2007... The home team was losing again, but the O.R. analyst didn't mind too much. The spring evening was mild, the beer was cold, and the ballpark was a welcome change from the usual routine. "Thanks again for inviting me, Ed," he told his friend, an...